Just two years after its formation, the Milestone Chemical Tankers pool has been dissolved.
The pool was started on 9 September 2013 by Mitsui OSK Lines subsidiary Tokyo Marine Asia and Norwegian outfit Jo Tankers. It announced that it has been disbanded as of 1 October.
Milestone Chemical Tankers, based in Singapore, managed chartering and operations for its shareholders’ vessels, which totalled 59 ships at the start. All but one of the tankers has stainless steel tanks.
The pool, which aimed to achieve efficient operations, was concurrently run by Tokyo Marine Asia managing director Yoichi Aoki.
Italian broker Banchero Costa said in a report that one-year timecharter rates for stainless steel chemical tankers were starting to improve but were nowhere near levels seen prior to 2008.
One-year timecharter rates for 12,000 dwt tankers, for example, plunged from USD17,000/day in 2008 to USD10,000/day in 2009. Today, rates are about USD12,000/day.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.